Troll line floats



Dec. 11, 1962 D. 1. BLACK TROLL LINE FLOATS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 11, 1961 IN V EN TOR.

D. l. BLACK TROLL LINE FLOATS Dec. 11, 1962 2 SheetsSheet 2 Filed Sept. 11, 1961 INVENTOR. Dt'lll I. Elli ITTUFIYKYP United States Patent 3,067,539 TROLL LINE FLOATS Della I. Black, 3230 NE. 95th St., Seattle 15, Wash. Filed Sept. 11, 1961, Ser. No. 137,105 Claims. (Cl. 43-4313) This invention relates to a trolling line float of the general character disclosed in the Locker-t Patent No. 2,901,857, dated September 1, 1959.

Such floats are commonly used by commercial salmon trollers. Such trollers commonly use powered reels to reel in the lines, and may have several lines over a side of their boat, which are guided by the floats to veer diflferent distances outboard, whereby to avoid fouling one line with another. It is highly important that the floats be readily disengageable from the lines as they are being reeled in, for the floats are set at an appreciable distance ahead of the hook and, of course, cannot be reeled in when a salmon is caught, and it is also important that the floats be quickly engageable with the line, without halting, as the line is running out in resetting.

It is a primary object of this invention to provide means of known type for clamping a line upon a float, but to provide novel means for latching or securing the lineclamping means in the clamped position, so that such latching means are readily engageable or disengageable as the line is running out or in, without halting the line.

More particularly, it is an object to provide a simple and eflicient latch member carried upon the line-clamping arm and engageable with a keeper element carried by the float, together with stop means to position the latch member, when disengaged, in keeper-engaging position, the whole so organized and arranged that a simple and natural pivotal movement of the latch member will engage it with or disengage it from the keeper element while the line is running out or in.

Also, it is an object to provide means to the above ends which is of simple construction and relatively inexpensive, for mounting upon a float of the normal type now in use.

These and other objects will be understood more fully as this specification progresses.

In the accompanying drawings, I have shown my invention in a form which presently is preferred by me.

FIGURE 1 is an isometric view of a float with the line-clamping means and retaining means shown in the disengaged position.

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged isometric view showing parts in the engaged and latched position.

FIGURE 3 is a view somewhat similar to FIGURE 2, but showing the manner of unlatching the clamp from the line so that the float may fall free from the same.

FIGURE 4 is in efiect a bottom plan view of the latch member and associated parts showing the same in the released position, and FIGURE 5 is a similar view showing the same in the engaged or engaging position.

The float is an elongated, buoyant body such as a quadrangular body 4 of suitable buoyant material, such as styrene foam, having protective edge boards 41 and 42 of plywood or any suitable material, the whole held together through clamping bolts 43. Generally speaking, the float is thin and somewhat narrow, and may be of less height at its end which is forward in use than at its rear end. These details, however, are of no particular significance insofar as the present invention is concerned, and any suitable shape or material may be used.

Line-clamping means are provided at one edge of the float, which edge, when the float is in the water, will be the lower edge, due to the weight of the line-clamping means, but when the float is drawn out of the water this edge will be the upper edge, for the float then will hang downwardly by its own weight. This edge, to which the line-clamping means is secured, is the edge which supports the panel 41.

The line-clamping means employed is of a general type which is used in prior trolling line floats, and includes an arm 1 supported upon an axle 10 which is directed generally longitudinally of the edge panel 41, being journaled, for example, in the eyes 2 and having at its ends radially directed arms 11 and circumferentially directed tips 12 which are receivable in apertures 44 of the panel 41. The trolling line L is clamped between the arm 1 and the float, or specifically between the arm 1 and a plate 3 which is secured to the float, or to the plywood end plate 41, and this trolling line L is retained and its angle is determined by the angular direction of the axle 10 received in the eyes 2.

The present invention is concerned primarily with the mechanism whereby the clamping arm 1 is held in its clamping position, or conversely is released therefrom. In particular, the present invention is concerned with the rapidity and facility with which engagement or disengagement of the clamping arm is effected. A latch member 5 is pivotally mounted at 52 upon the clamping arm 1 for movement between two limit positions. In the one limit position a keynote aperture 5t) formed in the latching member 5 is in such position that a keeper element, defined generally by the head of a stud 6 supported from the float 4, or specifically by the plate 3, is in registry with the large part of the keyhole aperture 5%, so that the arm 1 and the latch element 5 to which the latching element is pivotally mounted may be swung angularly about the axle It to disengage the clamping element as a whole from the line L, or to engage the same by rotation about the axis of the axle 10 in the opposite direction. In the opposite limit position of the latching member 5, shown, for example, in FIGURES 2 and 3, and in the full line position of FIGURE 5, the head 6 of the keeper stud overlies the smaller end of the keyhole aperture, and the shank of the stud is extended through this smaller portion, to insure that the latching arm 5 is retained in the latching position and the clamping arm 1 in its clamping position. The keyhole slot 5% in itself constitutes a limit stop in the latched position, and to maintain the latching element 5 in its opposite limit position a stop shoulder 13 may be struck up from the arm 1 in position to be engaged by the complemental edge of the latching element 5 when the latter is in the unlatched position, and so to hold the head 6 of the stud in registry with the large portion of the keyhole aperture 5t). In this position the latching member 5 can be swung aside together with the clamping member 1, and the line L can be released, or conversely, the latching element 5 can be engaged with the stud, and 1t then needs only a slight movement of the latching element 5 about its pivot 52 to engage the keeper element 6 and so to retain parts in the clamped position.

FIGURE 3 illustrates how the float may be quickly and easily disengaged from the line while the line is being reeled in without halting the line. Part are shown in the latched position with the line L clamped between the clamping arm 1 and the plate 3 and with its ends at opposite sides retained by the arms 11. Incidentally, these arms are disposed at whatever angle to the general plane of the float the user may desire, to cause the float to veer at a given angle outboard. Now, as the line is being reeled in, to the left as viewed in FIGURE 3, the float being out of water hang from the line and the operator need only press with his thumb against the clamping element 5 or against the end 51 thereof, which is downturned alongside the float, to rotate the latching -member into the unlatched position. The weight of the float then causes the clamping arm to swing upwardly and the float drops from the line, with no interruption to its inward reeling. Similarly, when line is outrunning a float may be engaged with the line at any desired position upon the line merely by rotating the clamping arm 1 to the clamped position gripping the line L, and rotating the latching element 5 in the opposite direction to engage the stud or keeper 6 Within the small part of the keyhole slot 50. This, too, requires no interruption in the running of the line. In part, this is because the pivotal movement of the latching member is always in a direction contrary to the movement of the line and there is no requirement that unlatching be accomplished by a movement transversely of the line, as is the case in the Lockert patent referred to above.

While a particular mechanical form has been described above, it will be evident that various detail changes may be made in the individual devices and in their arrangement Without departing from the spirit of the invention, as defined in the accompanying claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. In combination with a trolling line float having a clamping arm hingedly mounted on one face thereof to swing between a position in which it operates to clamp the trolling line against the float and another position in which it operates to free the line for disengagement from the float, a latch mechanism for the clamping arm comprising a latch element connected with the clamping arm so as to be swingahle in an angular path with it, a keeper element disposed on the float in the angular path of the latch element relatively adjacent the clamping position of the arm, one element of said latch and keeper elements being mounted to pivot in directions relatively transverse the angular path of the latch element, said latch element having an aperture therein sized not only to pass over the keeper element as the arm assumes its clamping posiioabutal q t enab e tatat zsrents b said. ne l ment Within it, and the oth er elmnt of said latch and keeper elements having catch means thereon operative to releasably engage said one element when it is so pivoted in a predetermined directid-ri' in said aperture.

2. The combination according to claim 1 wherein the latch element aperture and the keeper element are cooperatively shaped to rele'aj'sably engage the elements when said one element is p'ivoted'in said direction.

The combination according to claim 2 wherein the keeper elernent is in the form pr; .a stud having a flanged head and the latch element aperture is in the form of a keyhole having a portion sized to eflect frictional engagement with the stud when said one element is pivoted in said direction.

4. The combination according to claim 3 further comprising an abutment so located on the float as to limit pivotal movement of said one element in the direction opposite from said predetermined direction, to a point at which the flanged head of the stud and a portion of the keyhole sized to pass over the flanged head are in register.

5. The combination according to claim 4 wherein the latch element is connected with the clamping arm so as to be pivotable in directions transverse its angular path with the clamping arm.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 880,318 Mattox Feb. 25, 1908 1,305,550 Keuser June 3, 1919 1,774,850 Snook Sept. 2, 1930 2,226,004 Lockert Dec. 24, 1940 2,901,857 Lo'ckert Sept. 1, 1959 

